ONE IN TEN candidates from migrant backgrounds didn’t canvas during the local elections for fear of violence and harassment, a new report says.

Meanwhile, 18% said they limited canvassing due to anti-migrant sentiment that they already experienced during their campaign.

The report by the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) found that anti-migrant violence and racism are one of the key barriers to electoral participation of migrant and ethnic minority communities.

More than 120 migrant candidates ran in the local elections this year and 20 were successful, which is double the number elected in 2019.

Some 89% of candidates have been living in Ireland for over 10 years and 85% hold Irish citizenship.

A quarter of the candidates said that various not-so-direct campaigning activities were their main strategies, with 14% depending mostly on social media, and 11% mainly using posters and leaflets.

Posters, the report said, helped candidates “break the ice”.

One female candidate told the ICI: “Posters definitely helped, as much as people hate them. Everyone was like, ‘oh yeah I saw your face, I saw your poster in our town’. That kind of helped me when I went to the door to speak to them.”

However, one in eight candidates said they didn’t use posters “out of fear of anti-migrant violence”.

“They were concerned that having their face recognised in public could make them or their families vulnerable to violence,” the report says.

A number of videos posted online at the time showed people approaching non-white candidates and asking them why they are putting up posters or telling them to take them down.

To avoid the situation escalating, some candidates stopped putting up their posters and walked away.

The ICI previously pointed out that one in eight (12%) of people living in Ireland are migrants, however, just one in 20 (5%) of candidates are migrants, “meaning out democracy is still not fully representative”.

The Journal previously spoke to a new Cork City South East councillor Honore Kamegni about his experience of running.

Kamegni, originally from Cameroon, said that while his campaign wasn’t easy, people at the doors were generally very supportive.

This, he said, made it easier to ignore online abuse.

The Journal reported on the targeting of candidates on social media, often by anti-immigration commentators and groups who help spread misinformation.